Thinking of buying this Fiat

[Iwantstuff]

Opinions please.

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/fiat...

[forzaminardi]

What to say? It's an 10-year old small Fiat with all that that means good and bad. I dare say short of something like a contemporary Polo, you could do a lot worse if what you're after is a small 10-year old car.

[Mashedpotatoes]

on the face of it seems fine. pity its only 12cc but then again they had some good songs.

[300bhp/ton]

Iwantstuff said:

Opinions please.

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/fiat...

Yes if you want to, no if you don't.

Are you asking about this specific car - if so, there is no way really to tell without going to look at it. But you'll need to do that.

If you are asking about 1.2 Punto's in general, then you might get more info. And coincidently there is a bright yellow one parked in my garden at the moment.

Afraid I think it's a horrid thing, horrid seating position and not nice for anyone who isn't tall as you'll have to move the seat so far forward that you bang your legs on the steering column and it makes getting in and out difficult.

Styling wise it's ok.

Driving it is not my thing at all, the engine is completely gutless and hugely over geared. It actually moves ok when driven hard, but you have to give it one hell of a beating in order to do this. Which makes it unpleasant and hard work.

Cruising it has a 6th, which is good for economy, but due to being over geared and underpowered made it quite dangerous in my opinion. It has absolutely no pickup in 6th at all and makes dual carriage way work more a chore than it is in a diesel Land Rover. Steering is horrid too and it rides only as well as any other tiny hatchback, which is not very well at all.

[irish boy]

I bought a panda 4x4 (same engine) as a winter car during the snow of '10 and liked it so kept it as a daily driver.

Been faultless....16k to 52k over the last 3 years, do the timing belt, give it a good service and off you go.........

[Grimezy93]

I've ran a year 2000 1.2 60bhp punto for over 2 years now. Has quite a bit of bodyroll, quite a bit of niggly problems, engine keeps up with most things off the line and it's not bad on the motorway, I have been looking for something a bit sturdier for a while now though with a bit more power.

For a first car it'd be fine though.

Things to look out for? Take 1-2 people with you to view it. Test drive it with 4 of you in the car and listen for any clanging noises when you set off, also take note of how gutless the engine is with 3 or more people in it.

Ask the owner about the power steering, they're prone to fail on Punto's. If you can on the test drive, do a manoeuvre that requires you to fully lock the wheel in both directions, this is what normally gives my steering a wobbly.

Standard check for rust blah blah.